The battlefield quaked beneath the weight of clashing Shinrei and screams, human and Voidborn alike. Shadows tore against flame, dust rose like prayer smoke. Amidst the chaos, Khael's dragonfire flared once more, forcing Selene and Alaric to turn their attention toward him

And that was when it happened.

A blur of motion.

A fist cutting through the air like a storm-born hammer.

CRACK!

Alaric staggered forward, his golden eyes wide surprise flickering like lightning behind them.

He turned. "How did you get here?"

Behind him stood Juno, chest heaving, his fists still trembling with the raw power that burned through his veins. Veins pulsed faintly along his arms glowing with crimson light as the 5th Taishin Gate coursed through him.

Juno smirked, sweat glistening under the fractured light of burning Voidborns.

"Guess it."

Alaric's eyes narrowed. He turned just enough to see hundreds of Voidborn carcasses dissolving into ash behind Juno, their bodies littering the plains like the aftermath of a storm.

"Hoh…" he muttered, voice low, dangerous. "So you cut through all of them?"

Juno clenched his fists tighter. The ground cracked beneath his stance. "You talk too much."

For the first time, Alaric's smile returned thin, sharp, arrogant.

"Then let's even the field."

He raised one hand, and the air twisted. The light around him dimmed, as if swallowed by an unseen tide. A whisper crawled through the air, a language not meant for mortals.

"Echo Art: Veil of the Abyss."

The world rippled. Shadows bled from the ground, curling around Alaric like smoke given sentience. His golden eyes vanished in the dark.

For a heartbeat, silence ruled the battlefield.

Ceyla looked up from her position, eyes narrowing. "What the hell is that?"

Khael felt the shift instantly the same way one feels the instant before lightning strikes. He muttered, "That's not Void energy… it's… Shinrei?"

Then he realized.

"An Echo Art…?"

Juno's brows furrowed. "Echo Art? Not Void Art…?"

From the shadows, a voice answered, Alaric's, echoing like it came from everywhere and nowhere.

"Sharp ears, Taishin."

Selene, standing some distance away, turned her gaze toward her brother, her tone cold yet amused.

"You're doing it, huh, brother?"

The darkness pulsed once as though it were breathing.

Juno braced himself. "So even monsters like you have soul arts, huh?"

A flicker and Alaric's voice came from behind him. "Monster? No. You misunderstand."

Juno spun but Alaric's blade had already grazed his shoulder, black energy searing his flesh before vanishing.

"Echo Art," Alaric said, voice cutting through the dark, "is the proof that even we remember being human."

Blood trickled down Juno's arm. His pulse pounded like war drums.

"Then I'll make you remember how humans fight."

He lunged — a blur of raw motion, bone and fury. Alaric sidestepped, parrying with effortless grace, his shadow cloak flickering around him. Each strike that Juno threw split the air, scattering the darkness for half a breath before it closed again.

The ground beneath them cratered, dirt flying as the two clashed a battle of flesh versus phantom, of will versus whisper.

Alaric's strikes were surgical, almost lazy in precision. Juno's were wild, relentless, fueled by unfiltered emotion, the true rhythm of a Taishin practitioner.

"Gate Five: Iron Nerve…!" Juno roared, his pain fading, strength surging once more.

He broke through Alaric's veil, his fist grazing Alaric's jaw just enough to draw blood. The shadows shattered for an instant, revealing Alaric's expression wide-eyed, almost delighted.

He wiped the blood from his lip. "Finally."

Selene, watching from afar, smirked faintly. "Don't get carried away, brother."

Juno planted his foot into the ground, Shinrei pressure exploding around him. "Don't blink!"

BOOM!

Their fists met again Taishin flesh and corrupted Shinrei colliding, sending shockwaves that tore through the battlefield.

Even Khael paused for a second, eyes flicking toward the explosion of dust and force.

"That idiot… he's really pushing it."

Andromeda blinked, half-joking despite the chaos. "Remind me not to spar with that guy ever."

Matthew, beside him, nodded grimly. "You wouldn't last a second."

The veil of shadows began to thin as the clash continued light returning little by little. And through the smoke, Juno's voice cut clear steady, furious, alive.

"You hurt my master…" his fists flared with Shinrei light.

"So I'll make sure you never hurt anyone again!"

Alaric smiled in the dark sharp, almost sad.

"Then come, Taishin."

His eyes gleamed gold once more.

"Let's see if your fists can break the abyss."

The storm of Shinrei and shadow collided agai and the battle for Tashi roared louder than ever.

The ground trembled from Juno and Alaric's clash in the distance, shockwaves echoing through the battlefield but in the center of it all, another confrontation was taking shape.

Selene's eyes, dark and unreadable, locked on to Khael.

Her voice was calm, but her aura bled violence.

"Forget about them, Dragon Knight…"

She raised her hand, shadows gathering like a rising tide.

"Let's fight."

Khael turned to face her fully his dragon eyes flickered gold and ember-red. He didn't draw his blade. Instead, he simply watched her, breathing slow, almost mournful.

"You're trembling."

Selene blinked, her expression twisting briefly confusion, then anger.

"What?"

Khael's tone was low, steady cutting through the noise of war.

"I feel your emotion."

His gaze sharpened, piercing through the shroud of her calm.

"You're pretending, aren't you?"

Selene's breath hitched. Her shadows wavered for half a heartbeat before she clenched her fists tighter.

"Pretending?" she spat. "Don't mock me, human."

But Khael's voice didn't waver.

"Pretending to kill us… when you can't even do it."

He stepped closer, each word like a quiet revelation.

"It feels like you're doing what you're doing because you're afraid of something."

His eyes softened. "I don't know what it is… but I can feel it."

Selene froze, her expression flickering with something raw, unguarded, before rage filled the cracks.

Her Shinrei flared, violent and chaotic.

"Stop acting like you know!!" she screamed, the ground beneath her splintering. "You're the same as that old man!! Always talking like you understand us!!"

Dark energy surged from her feet, spiraling upward in writhing tendrils. Her voice echoed with both fury and despair.

"ECHO ART: SIPHON OF THE VOID!"

The air warped violently. Reality itself seemed to twist as black tendrils burst from the ground dozens, then hundreds each one alive with malice, writhing like serpents.

The tendrils lashed toward Khael, aiming to entangle his limbs, pierce his armor, and drain his Shinrei from within.

Khael's dragon aura flared instantly, his eyes igniting with golden fire. He raised his gauntlet, the crimson scales along his arm glowing.

"Tch… you Voidborn and your damn tentacles again."

The tendrils wrapped around him, slamming him backward into the ground. But before Selene could smirk, a deep rumble filled the air.

Khael's voice growled through the smoke

"Dragon Core… resonate."

Flames erupted from his body golden, crimson, and black intertwined. The air howled as heat blasted outward, vaporizing the tendrils closest to him.

Selene shielded her face, feeling the searing warmth brush against her skin.

Her eyes widened.

"That flame… it's evolving again…?"

Khael emerged from the smoke, scales crawling up his neck, his pupils slitted like a beast's.

"You're not evil, Selene."

His tone was calm again unnervingly so.

"You're just scared. Scared of losing someone. Or something."

Selene's teeth clenched. Her shadows flickered again, unstable — as though reflecting her breaking composure.

"You don't know anything!" she screamed, unleashing another wave of Siphon tendrils that tore through the earth.

Khael planted his foot forward, slamming his palm into the ground.

"Then I'll burn that fear out of you!!"

"Infernal Spiral!"

A cyclone of dragonfire spiraled from his palm, consuming the tendrils mid-air and surging straight toward Selene. She crossed her arms, forming a barrier of darkness but the flame slammed against it with explosive force.

For a moment, the world became red and black two powers devouring one another.

When the light faded, Selene stood panting, her barrier shattered, her arm trembling. Yet her eyes they weren't cold anymore. There was fear. There was grief.

Khael looked at her, his expression soft again.

"You see?" he said quietly. "You're still human inside."

Selene's lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to speak but she couldn't. Her voice caught in her throat.

Then, a faint voice echoed in her mind, a memory.

"Selene… if you hesitate, you die."

Her pupils constricted.

"I… can't stop…" she whispered, half to herself, half to the ghost of whoever haunted her.

The shadows coiled again, though shakier this time.

Khael's eyes glowed — not with rage, but with understanding.

"Then I'll stop you."

The battle between dragon and shadow was about to begin

not between enemies,

but between two souls chained by fear.

To be continue

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